{"id":132568,"date":"2023-02-27T17:20:16","date_gmt":"2023-02-28T00:20:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=132568"},"modified":"2023-02-27T17:20:16","modified_gmt":"2023-02-28T00:20:16","slug":"buffalo-slaughter-usaid-landbank-in-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2023\/02\/27\/buffalo-slaughter-usaid-landbank-in-sri-lanka\/","title":{"rendered":"Buffalo Slaughter & USAID LandBank in Sri\u00a0Lanka"},"content":{"rendered":"

e-Con e-News<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

The USA\u2019s IMF package is still secret, right? The President keeps promising to present it \u2018soon\u2019. Just like the \u2018promised\u2019 IMF loan, which is supposed to act as a suppository to loosen the sphincters of tight-fisted money markets. The package is secret, the promised date is secret, and the IMF is still controlled by the US. So, while the money markets are clearly gaming Sri Lanka, why should China join the US in exploiting SL? As China\u2019s recent statement says, they will support Sri Lanka, but not support the IMF. Yet clearly the English media will allow no such truths to shake their dogged belief in US \u2018charity\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Why do our media listen to the sermons of the English and the US, clearly the most murderous regimes plant Earth has ever encountered? Check out Russian President V Putin\u2019s take below on US pomposity. Then check China\u2019s expos\u00e9 this week on the depths of US hegemony, and how it relates to recent events in Sri Lanka. In the end, the obsequiousness of the Sri Lankan English media & the polity it represents, relates to the simple matter that the oligarchy has stolen and placed their golden eggs in the vulture\u2019s nest. But is this all that matters?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 \u2018This newspaper contacted the Central Bank of Sri Lanka via 0112 477966, 0112 477129, 1935, 0112 477840, and 0112 867384 to find out whether they are working to get back the export revenue deposited in foreign banks<\/strong>. But those numbers were connected to a fax machine<\/strong>. After that, this writer attempted to contact Mahinda Siriwardena, Secretary of the Ministry of Finance<\/strong> via 0112 484511. But he could not be contacted. An officer there asked this writer to contact the Additional Secretary (Legal) of the Ministry of Finance <\/strong>DD Arandara via 0112 484670. But there was no response. The Daily Mirror<\/em> then called the aforementioned officer again, and she told this writer to contact the State Ministry<\/strong> via 0112 883525. But it was the phone number of the Ministry of Children & Women Affairs<\/strong>. When asked about it again, her answer was that she gave the number looking up the phone directory in a hurry<\/strong>. This newspaper then asked the officer, who did not even know the number of the state ministry, its phone number again, and this writer was asked to dial 0112 484600, extension 1531. When contacted, an officer said the State Ministry of Finance<\/strong> does not have a separate secretary or an additional secretary or any other responsible officer to take any information. Therefore, this newspaper was asked to contact the Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Finance<\/strong> via 0112 484600, extension 1422 to inquire about all these matters. The DM<\/em> tried to contact the Additional Secretary but he was also not available.\u2019 \u2013 ee Sovereignty<\/em>, $36bn<\/strong> of SL\u2019s export money held offshore<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka suspended paying bilateral foreign debt in April 2022.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the country continues to repay loans<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

obtained from several multilateral organisations,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

such as the <\/em>World Bank<\/em><\/strong> & <\/em>Asian Development Bank<\/em><\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 ee Economy<\/em><\/strong>, <\/strong>Sri Lanka has to meet $2.6bn<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

in foreign debt repayments & interest this year<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 The US government and allied poodles are \u2018gaming\u2019 Sri Lanka\u2019s \u2018debt\u2019. They wish to promote further chaos in the country to pursue their military, political and economic goals. US poodles include \u2013 not just their international financial institutions (IFIs) like the World Bank, IMF & ADB but also \u2013 Sri Lankan officials and a so-called private sector (that already monopolizes the country\u2019s resources, but crave even more, through privatization).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Sri Lanka\u2019s corporations have been caught red-handed parking their profits outside the country. This ee<\/em><\/strong> reproduces essays on this \u2018bleeding process\u2019 (as Marx called European colonialism), but also the gaming of debt, as well as on the joke of constantly demanding \u2018foreign investment\u2019 (see ee Focus<\/em><\/strong>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Under their breath, some of these politically powerful \u2018exporters\u2019 argue, there is no modern industry to invest in anyway. There is no doubt, it is more than money we need (see ee Building Blocks<\/em><\/strong>) However, as ee<\/em><\/strong> continues to argue, these \u2018exporters\u2019 are umbilically linked to the colonial import-export plantation oligarchy. They keep continuing their economic terrorism in Sri Lanka to prevent and sabotage any attempt at modern production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Economists\u2026 have oversimplified the nature of the problem<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

by talking only of levels of development,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

and ignoring the fact that some nations<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

not only lack development but are locked<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

into a stagnant state where <\/em>development is impossible<\/em><\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Ruth C Young, quoted in SBD de Silva\u2019s Political Economy of Underdevelopment<\/em>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018The bulk of Sri Lanka\u2019s land is state owned,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and the private land market is inefficient\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This prevents land being utilised to generate capital\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Economic Blueprint<\/em> of the SJB Economic Policy Unit<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Killing Buffalo & Mountain Farms for US Land Banks & Tourism \u2013 This week ee<\/em><\/strong> read reports on the horrifying slaughter of buffaloes and the undermining of mountain farming in Laggala (ee Random Notes<\/em><\/strong>). As an ee<\/em><\/strong> Reader recalls, <\/strong>before the English invasion of Ceylon, Sinhala Buddhists did not touch the meat of farming animals, and referred to such as \u2018gerri muss<\/em>\u2019 (also see, ee Focus<\/em><\/strong>, Cattle in the Kandyan Countryside under English Colonialists)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     ee<\/em><\/strong> sees this violence against cultivators and animals as directly linked to the privatization of water resources and common lands on which both villager & cattle depend. Intriguing it is then to learn that USAID\u2019s <\/strong>International Development Group<\/strong>, based in Virginia (where the CIA is also domiciled) wants \u20182 technical officers\u2019 for a \u2018Land Bank Development\u2019 in Sri Lanka. Deadline for applicants is 8 March (ee Agriculture<\/em><\/strong>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     While a supine media is directing people\u2019s attention elsewhere, all land use is about to be centralized in Sri Lanka<\/strong>. And further: individual state institutions will no longer be allowed to give land on lease<\/strong>. Another reader adds: \u2018This Land Bank is being pushed by USAID, CIA, Soros\u2019 NED NGOS. They haven\u2019t yet given up on the idea of a Land Bank in Sri Lanka \u2013 under the control of the US!\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     This land bank is being pushed under the guise of \u2018tourism development.\u2019 So it\u2019s no wonder they are attacking food producers! And it is no coincidence that a webinar on debt sponsored by the Ceylon Tobacco Co<\/strong> features the former English diplomat \u2018Sir\u2019 Peter Heap, senior advisor to the CTC\u2019s \u2018Research Unit\u2019, who claims \u2018tourism\u2019 is Sri Lanka\u2019s major resource<\/strong>, and we must therefore act \u2018democratic\u2019 like the English, to whom bombings, riots and police teargas are supposedly \u2018foreign\u2019:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022Full Story<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Buffalo Slaughter & USAID LandBank in Sri Lanka<\/a><\/blockquote>